Efficient mid-infrared (mid-IR) semiconductor lasers are needed to meet the growing demands of many civilian and military applications. These applications for mid-IR wavelengths (e.g., λ=2.3 to 8 to 20 μm (micrometers)) include environmental and chemical-warfare monitoring, medical diagnostics, IR lidar, free-space communications, infrared countermeasures (IRCM), IR illumination, and gas sensing. In recent years, interband cascade (IC) lasers have been advanced to operate in continuous wave (cw) mode at room temperature (RT) and through a wide mid-IR wavelength range from 2.8 μm to 6 μm. The active regions of these IC lasers (referred to herein as “type-II IC lasers”) are made of type-II quantum wells (QWs) where electrons and holes are mainly distributed in separate layers such that the wave-function overlap between the electron and hole states is relatively small. Consequently, optical gain in the type-II QW is relatively weak. Type-I IC lasers based on type-I QW active regions circumvent these issues of type-II IC lasers. In type-I IC lasers, where electrons and holes are mainly distributed in the same layers in the active region so that the optical gain is enhanced, a reduced threshold carrier concentration results, compared to type-II IC lasers. Consequently, free-carrier absorption loss and Auger recombination may also be reduced with a lowered threshold carrier concentration, leading to improvements such as a further drop in threshold current density and increased output power. However, conventional type-I IC lasers suffer from their own shortcomings, and it is the goal of rectifying these shortcomings that the light emitting devices of the present disclosure are directed.